Recent Posts
Navigating the nonprofit world can be challenging. Blue Avocado offers expert guidance on a range of topics — from building strong boards to maximizing your fundraising impact. Explore our latest posts for practical tips, strategies, and solutions to common issues facing nonprofit organizations today.
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How to Give Feedback to Your Funders—Especially When It’s Hard
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A Primer on Financial Audits for Nonprofits – Live Q&A
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Best Tactics for Finding Government Grants Suitable for Your Nonprofit
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Against the Current: Matt Jorgensen
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Against the Current: Mitch Gruber
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Ask Rita: How Does the Americans with Disabilities Act Impact Our Efforts to Keep Employees Safe During the Covid-19 Pandemic?
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Are Your Nonprofit Organization’s Stories Dishonoring the Families You Serve?
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Hiring People with Disabilities Is Not a Charity: Here’s Why and How to Stop Paying Subminimum Wage
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Against the Current: Regina Anderson
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Ask Rita: U.S. Supreme Court Granted New Protection for LGBTQ+ Employees—What Do We Need to Know?
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Resiliency in the New Normal: Nonprofit Colleagues Share Their Experiences
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Creating a Roadmap to Synchronize the Board to Your Nonprofit Mission
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Assessing Financial Health in the Time of COVID-19
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Aligning Nonprofit Management Teams and Boards During a Crisis Live Q&A
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Investing in Relationships with Donors: 5 Phases of Securing a Major Gift
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Against the Current: Nihal Satyadev
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Seeking Sustainability: How Can Nonprofits Survive the Pandemic?
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Ask Rita: For What Work-Related Expenses Must I Reimburse Remote Employees?
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The Truth, Even When Unpleasant, Can Always Be Explained: Nonprofit Pointers for Conduct in Court
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Against the Current: Jose “Che” Ramirez
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How Can We Help the Board Address Problematic Behavior from the President?
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In the Shadow of the Pandemic, Nonprofits Form Partnerships to Expand the Meaning of Healthcare
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IRS Tax Form 990 [Deadline Extended]: How to File It, When to File It, and Why It’s So Important
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Against the Current: Eunice Lin Nichols
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Ask Rita: During Covid-19, Do We Furlough or Layoff Staff?
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How to Do Legislative Advocacy—and WIN
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Nonprofits on Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Workers’ Comp, Property & Casualty Insurance – Live Q&A
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Communicating with Donors During a Maelstrom: Practical Wisdom on When, What, Who, How, and How Often
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2020 California Employment Law Update #2: Compensation
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2020 California Employment Law Update #3: Fair Employment
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2020 California Employment Law Update #4: Time Off
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2020 California Employment Law Update #1: Arbitration in the Workplace
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What Nonprofits Need to Know About Audits
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Navigating the New Families First Coronavirus Response Act
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Against the Current: Mando Rayo
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Make the Move! Tips for Migrating Your In-Person Event Online
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Ask Rita: Interns Who Lose Their Academic Connections with Your Nonprofit—Are They Really Interns?
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4 Tips for Sustaining and Managing Donors
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Ask Rita: How Do We Stop Bullying Behavior?
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Donor-Centric Budgeting & Reporting: Top 6 Tips
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The Pitfalls of Running a Mentoring Program
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Developing a Successful Intern Program
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Moving Beyond Awareness
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Embracing Unlikely Allies: Sleeping with the Enemy
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Is Your Fundraising in Compliance with State Laws?
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No Budget, No Mission: A Guide to Basic Nonprofit Budgeting
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Against the Current: Rachel Sumekh
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The Effect of the 2018 Tax Overall on Nonprofit Donations and the Rise of DAFs
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Election Year Messages Nonprofits Can Use
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Time to Fold: Keys to Gracefully Winding Down a Nonprofit
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Nonprofit Tales From the US-Mexico Border
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Ask Rita: Are My Independent Contractors Actually Employees?
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Are We Heading Towards Another Nonprofit Insurance Crisis?
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Marketing Automation for Nonprofits and Churches
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Why Earned Income Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
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3 Tips & Tools for Better Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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How to Cure Founder’s Syndrome
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Successfully Navigating an Executive Director Transition
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Reducing Unconscious Bias in Recruiting
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Ask Rita: What Are My Obligations to an Employee Receiving Infertility Treatments?
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Funder’s Corner: The Grateful Donor
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A Peek Inside the Millennial Mind
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Lobbying & Advocacy: Five Reasons to Get Off the Sidelines
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How to Hire Great Nonprofit Leaders
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Engaging Board Members: AAA Then and Now
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Creating A Board That Works
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A Nonprofit Leader’s Path to Becoming a Diversity and Inclusion Champion
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle A Whistleblower?
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Sample Whistleblower Policy
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How to Cultivate Big Donors with a Small Staff
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Readers’ Thoughts: Secrets to Successful Succession
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Top 10 Nonprofit Board “Worst” Practices
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle Harassment by an Outsider?
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Political Polarization & Nonprofits: How Can You Bridge the Divide?
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Win Back Your Lapsed Donors: 3 Effective Strategies
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NextGen Nexus: The New Face of Philanthropy, Courtesy of Young America
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Ask Rita: Health Benefits for Employees on FMLA Leave?
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Remote Team Environments: A How-To Primer
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Managing Big Change: Top Tips for New Executive Directors & CEOs
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Your IRS Form 990 Questions Answered
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3 Online Fundraising Tips for Small Nonprofits
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Community Development: Strategies That Serve
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Funding Innovation: Top Tips
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Ask Rita: Is Terminating an At-Will Employee Risk-Free?
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Finding Your Data Path to Success, Part 2: What We Learned Along the Way
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3 Keys to Mission-Based Workplace Design
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What I Learned as a Funder: Frank Tips for Nonprofits
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How We Built a Nonprofit from Our College Bedroom and What We Wish We Knew
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Ask Rita: The 2016 Federal Exempt Minimum Salary Rule—Gone, or on Pause?
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Funder’s Corner: Finding Your Data Path to Success
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Tips for Nonprofits: Surviving Government Shutdowns
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Sample eWorkplace HR Policy
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The Best Way To Put Clients First Is To Let Them Lead!
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3 Things We Know About Engaging Millennials in Your Nonprofit’s Cause
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Want Equity? Then It’s Time to Break the Rules!
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Ask Rita: When Is Work Time Too Small To Count?
A fast look at just four critical areas facing American society today: Poverty, race, environment, and democracy.
Pablo Eisenberg shares some reforms that speak to democracy in the United States, and that would be pretty easy for foundations to do.
The Golden Rule of Board Resignations: When you resign, do it the way you would like others to resign. Whatever your reason, resign right.
Do you need to accommodate the use of medical marijuana when making a hiring decision or for current employees?
This checklist points out the necessary elements in bylaws. It’s important to also stay compliant with applicable state and city laws.
Blue Avocado shares five “must-have” emergency supplies for nonprofit workers to keep at their desks in case of disaster.
Some valuable lessons drawn from listening, observing, and laughing with women executive directors of color over the years.
Ask Rita explores whether an employee’s work as a surrogate qualifies as a second job that is in conflict with her employer’s agency.
Blue Avocado discusses unusual board terms with Jeanetta Issa, CEO of Child Abuse Prevention in Kansas City.
Policy analyst Rick Cohen discusses the four things we should be worried about with public policy and volunteers.
Robin Erickson, Director of Finance and Administration for an environmental nonprofit, shares her organization’s approach to telecommuting.
Take these guidelines into consideration when adopting alternative work arrangements for your staff.
Rockefeller Foundation and NY Times announced as the “winners” of the first-year Just Awards for dubious contributions to nonprofit sector.
Developing a social media policy for your nonprofit organization can be difficult. These guidelines can help.
Regulating what nonprofit employees say and do on social media is a slippery slope. Here’s some guidance to help nonprofits.
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts in Jamaica, New York tells what she’s learned from knitting.
All-Volunteer Organizations (AVO) are some of the most important nonprofit organizations around; here are some relevant articles for AVOs.
Eight strategic errors nonprofit organizations often make that stand in the way of “smart growth” in their membership numbers.
Rick Cohen spotlights attacks by financially starved local and state governments to squeeze extra nickels and dimes from nonprofits.
Like a mission statement, a business model statement acts as a touchstone: A reminder and guide for the organization’s focus and strategies.
Despite the importance of the nonprofit board, there’s strikingly little clarity about who is responsible for its performance.
There are three levels of exchange in the grantor-grantee relationship. Explore one of the least discussed: The one-to-one interaction.
Most of the time, nonprofit boards work through consensus. But what if you think a serious mistake is being made?
Brenda Crawford, executive director of Mental Health Consumer Concerns, shares strategies that move people to social change.